The federal NDP leadership race has begun, but with fewer votes than ever last election, many are writing the party off for good. That would be a mistake, both because the NDP has rebounded before, and also because Canadians still need an alternative to the Liberal-Conservative alliance with the rich and powerful. That’s the job for the NDP and its next leader: to challenge the rich and their stranglehold on Canada.

The rich have it pretty good in Canada, and recent data suggests that the gap between the have and have-nots is rising into 2025, especially as investments grow quickly but wages remain stagnant. Further, recent tax reforms may well increase the gap rather than lower it. This is because both Pierre Poilievre and Mark Carney embrace trickle-down economics — the idea that if we cut taxes for the wealthy, they will trickle down prosperity on the masses at some point. Maybe.

It’s also why they’ve rejected NDP wealth tax proposals, even though by some measures as many as 88 per cent of Canadians support it. Similar is the recent capital gains tax cut supported by both Carney and Poilievre. While this tax would only hit 0.13 per cent of Canadians making $1,411,000 on average annually — Carney made killing it a priority on his first days in office.

This is why union president Rob Ashton, in his campaign for NDP leader, has emphasized that the status quo amounts to theft from workers: “They’re stealing our money. And when we complain or demand better, we’re deemed the bad ones. That’s unacceptable.”

Beyond taxation, concentrated corporate control and anti-union laws serve to transfer wealth and power from workers to employers. Nowhere was this clearer than when the Carney Liberals violated the strike rights of Air Canada flight attendants. The only thing that stopped the schemes of Carney and the corporation was the workers’ bold willingness to break an unjust law. While NDP MP Leah Gazan is proposing new legislation to axe Section 107 of the labour code, which made Carney’s violation possible, the broader point is that the working class is furious and fighting back, ‘illegally’ if needed.

The NDP’s next leader needs to tap into this anger and acknowledge that Canada’s economy lacks democracy and workers need a greater say. This includes stronger unions and cooperatives, but also greater public ownership. This is why leadership challenger Avi Lewis is suggesting a greater role for Crown Corporations in the Canadian economy, to give workers ownership of their society, and challenge the oligopolistic power of the rich that drives up cost of living by price gouging the 99 per cent.

After all, ‘eating the rich’ isn’t just about soaking them with taxes, but about acknowledging the class divide that defines Canada. As Tommy Douglas once said, the core issue in Canada isn’t simply that the rich have lots of money, but that they have a fundamentally different and incompatible set of interests than the rest of society. There is no mythical ‘harmony of the classes’ coming to Canada — or anywhere else. The NDP needs to explicitly pick a side on behalf of the workers, just as the Liberals and Conservatives have implicitly sided with the owners.

One final challenge remains, which is communicating this vision. Ashton concedes that while the NDP has struggled on this front recently, hope remains:

If we go back to what we were in the beginning, we were loud. We were unapologetic for being loud and demanding better… We could do good things for Canadians. That’s what we are as a party.

So it’s time to be loud: to let people know that a democratic socialist platform by the NDP will fight inequality, tackle corporate price gouging, and bring more democracy to people’s everyday life. 

And if the rich cry foul? That’s likely just a sign they’re doing something right.

Christo Aivalis is a political commentator and holds a PhD in History from Queen’s University.